The Manhunt Radio Program

Frederick W Ziv was one of Radio's most prolific and successful programming syndicators

Billboard announcement of Ziv's Manhunt feature from November 20 1943

Ziv broadside in 1944 trade annual promoting Manhunt

Radio and Television veteran Roger de Koven appeared as Detective Sergeant Bill Morton in Manhunt

Background

Frederick W. Ziv was a syndicated programming genius. Throughout The Golden Age of Radio, Ziv produced some of the most star-studded, popular, transcribed syndication programming to ever air. Innovative programming such as:

Working with Frederick W. Ziv was usually a very profitable decision for all parties associated with Ziv. Guy Lombardo made a reported $3,000,000 with Ziv over the years of their association. The Bogarts (Bold Venture) made an estimated $600,000 for their son's trust fund with Ziv. The Menjous earned a reported $750,000 with Ziv. Ronald Colman was also reported to earn $750,000 for Ziv's award-winning Favorite Story.

Frederick Ziv had a formula--and the formula was a successful one. He developed appealing programming, backed it with the best writers of the era, obtained the perfect talent for each project and generally hyped them and almost always rolled them out with all the attendant splash, promotional hype, and star-power associated with the elaborate promotions.

All of this is by way of explaining Frederick W. Ziv's programming, marketing, and promotion genius, as much as to underline the huge business that syndicated, transcribed Radio had become by the late 1940s. It didn't hurt in the least that Ziv's transcribed syndications were invariably of the highest quality and production values. Ziv financed his programming out of pocket, in the expectation of generating a growing number of subscribers for his programs. With a combination of excellent business sense, a prior legal background, a proven track record of success and glowing testimonials from the famous artists he'd already promoted, Ziv had every good reason to bet the farm on most of his new productions. Since he bankrolled his own productions, he routinely employed Hollywood's finest, most versatile and most reliable talent for supporting roles and production.

Ziv rolls out Manhunt in November 1943

Billboard magazine announcement of Ziv's forthcoming Manhunt program here described as 'open-ended' from October 9 1943

While most of Ziv's 30-minute, name-star features were customarily introduced to great fanfare, an equal number of his features over the years were simply calculated to generate a larger canon of available programming. Indeed, many of Ziv's 15-minute programs were created precisely to fill a perceived niche. Radio programming during the mid to late 1940s was still a patchwork quilt of programs of varying length. Spot programs of two to 5 minutes and fifteen minute features were routinely employed to balance a network or local affiliate's programming schedule.

Manhunt was a 15-minute crime drama anthology. The scripts ran twelve and a half minutes, so as to allow stations to insert their own commercial messages and announcements in the remaining two and a half minutes. Starring Larry Haines and featuring Florence Robinson, the series was introduced and narrated by Maurice Tarplin. Tarplin's portentious opener for each episode went something like this:

Having instilled a sense of foreboding in the listener, the script would launch into the dramatic exposition necessary to frame the ensuing plot. Each episode posed a crime puzzle of one kind or another--usually a murder under impossible conditions. Larry Haines portrays Andrew 'Drew' Stevens, a police lab forensic detective and Frances Robinson portrays his secretary--and love interest--Patricia 'Pat' O'Connor. Homicide Detective Sergeant Bill Morton is Stevens' local police contact.

The format is tight by mystery standards of the era. The introductory exposition usually provides enough intrigue to involve the listener. Generally twelve minutes in length, the scripts necessarily contained enough exposition to explain or advance the plot. "Manhunt" was probably an unfortunate title for the series' premise. The series of plots didn't involve manhunts as much as crime puzzlers, such as the classic 'sealed room' murders so much the fashion in detective fiction. The real twist of this series is the forensic angle. Drew Stevens, as the Head of the Police Laboratory, is a forensics expert. And indeed, the circulating exemplars contain an entertaining collection of interesting forensic puzzles.

The announced titles of the overwhelming number of circulating exemplars are "The Clue of the . . . " something or other. And indeed, therein lies the clue to understanding this series. The scripts, in their limited format, go to great lengths to juxtapose homicide detective Morton and his 'traditional' detection methods and Drew Stevens' forensic detection methods.

An east coast production, most of the production details have yet to surface. Jackson Beck is heard in one role or another in the majority of circulating episodes.

Series Derivatives:

None

Genre:

Anthology of Golden Age Radio Crime Dramas

Network(s):

NBC, ABC, CBS, and several independent affiliates while in syndication.

Audition Date(s) and Title(s):

Unknown

Premiere Date(s) and Title(s):

43-11-27 01 Title Unknown

Run Dates(s)/ Time(s):

43-11-27 to ?; Various networks and stations; At least twenty-six, 12-minute programs; Various dates and times.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.  Larry Haines, who won two Daytime Emmys for his 35-year role on the soap opera “Search for Tomorrow,” has died. He was 89.
Haines, who also had a successful career on Broadway generally billed as A. Larry Haines, died July 17 at a hospital where he had been admitted a week earlier, his attorney and friend, Tom Dachelet, said Wednesday.
The actor played Stu Bergman on “Search for Tomorrow” from 1951 to 1986, missing only the first two months of the
show’s run.
Stu was the neighbor and best friend of Joanne Gardner Barron, later Joanne Tourneur, the character at the center of most of the show’s plot lines.
The soap opera, which was first on CBS, later on NBC, was the longest-running daytime TV drama when its last episode
aired in December 1986.
He won his Daytime Emmys in 1976 and 1981.
In 1985, he was presented with a special recognition award for his longevity on the series.
Haines was twice nominated for Tonys, for “Promises, Promises,” the 1968 musical version of the film “The Apartment,” and “Generation,” a 1965 play starring Henry Fonda.
Early in his career, he was an actor on radio series, including the popular horror series “Inner Sanctum,” which famously
opened with the sound of a creaking door.

Maurice Tarlin [Tarplin] is one of those memorable personae etched forever into the collective memory of Golden Age Radio aficionados the world over. Although he's most often mistakenly identified as Raymond Edward Johnson, his two most memorable roles were as the host of The Mysterious Traveler and the host of The Strange Dr. Weird (as 'Dr. Weird').

His obvious pleasure in attempting to scare the bejeebers out of his anxious listeners, though at times over the top, was delivered in a consistently tongue-in-cheek manner, thus appealing equally well to juvenile listeners at bedtime [remember, this was the 1940s] as to dyed-in-the wool supernatural mystery fans.

And he always managed to deliver those two personae with predictable gusto. He's so deeply associated with Mysterious Traveler and Dr. Weird, that his fans are often unaware of the fact that he was a very busy, diverse actor for most of his career. His radio experience reads like a 'Who's Who' of superior radio dramas (witness his brief radiography in the sidebar at the left).

He didn't limit his considerable talent to Radio. He also enjoyed a repectable career on the stage and television as late as 1980 (kinda scary in itself since he's reported to have passed away in 1975--could the IMDB be wrong, or . . . .?).